This novel employs a third person omniscient point of view, mostly focusing on the thoughts and perspective of Shevek. Only rarely does the perspective shift to another character, such as Bedap, who briefly gives the viewpoint of one who has devoted his life to work and not taken the time to have a family like Shevek has. We see the life that Shevek could have chosen and the suffering he could have avoided by not attaching himself to partner and children.
In many ways this novel is Shevek's story. We enter his mind as he interacts with the Urrasti, but we also learn why he becomes the person he does leading up to his journey to Urras. From the precocious child to the blindly loyal teenager to the disillusioned adult, we see his eyes.....
